


I’d be Safe and Warm If I Were in L.A.

by hatchetfield_bee



Series: You Are The One Thing Going Right [4]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, They deserve better so I’m trying to provide them with it, mentions of abuse, mentions of drug use, shitty parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:27:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23954578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hatchetfield_bee/pseuds/hatchetfield_bee
Summary: Title is from California Dreamin’ by The Mamas & The Papas.A FaceTime call during work takes a turn for the better.
Relationships: Becky Barnes/Tom Houston, Hannah Foster & Ethan Green, Hannah Foster & Lex Foster, Lex Foster/Ethan Green
Series: You Are The One Thing Going Right [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716556
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	I’d be Safe and Warm If I Were in L.A.

They had been dating for almost 3 years. Lex had quit her job at Toy Zone after she got a job at a clothes shop in Clivesdale. It paid more and her boss wasn’t as big of a dick, so she said fuck seniority and made Ethan take the longer drive. He was working at a bar during the days, he dropped out a month or two after Lex did. With them both working, their ‘side jobs’ and the extra tips Ethan would get from alcoholic women who would come in for the early bird specials they were making a decent amount of income for two 19 year olds. He still couldn’t afford a new car so he settled with replacements for the shitty SUV. He let Hannah name the car and she chose ‘Motor’ because it looked like the shitty car from the Disney movie.   
They were settling down. The dream of California wasn’t completely gone, but it hadn’t been mentioned for a bit. They hadn’t had much time together with them both working during the days and when they weren't working they were taking shifts watching Hannah on the weekends. Hannah had left school because they threatened to hold her back, so they had Alice watch her during the day.  
They’d try and schedule their breaks at the same time so they could text or call without being caught. Even though they saw each other 4 hours later, they’d both be so exhausted that Ethan would just drive them back and they’d all fall asleep.  
It was a Saturday and Lex was home with Hannah while Ethan was at work. It wasn’t really home, it was Ethan’s mom’s house but she hadn’t been there for almost a month so he let them stay there. He finally texted her to let her know he was on her break, the text was followed by a FaceTime call. She picked up and set the camera up so that Hannah could see him too. He talked to them for a little bit before he asked Lex if she could take the call into the other room. She did and shut the door behind her. He usually wasn’t this serious during their calls, it was just joking around and dumb banter. So to say she was confused was an understatement. “What’s up, E? Is something wrong?”  
“No, nothing’s wrong,” he took a deep breath, “Do you wanna go to Cali tonight?” Her jaw almost dropped, she asked him to repeat himself for clarity, “Do you wanna leave for California tonight? Or tomorrow, I don’t really care.”  
Lex took a moment to respond, her eyes burned from staring at the phone. She snapped out of her shock and blinked, “Why now? Are you serious?”  
He shrugged, “I mean, you guys essentially have all of your stuff there. We’re in a good place financially and I was looking at motels a minute ago and they all have some vacancy. If you don’t want to, it's fine, I just thought now would be a good time, ya’ know?”  
She couldn’t help but smile. It was her dream to go there and start a life and the opportunity was right there for her. Lex bit her lip and grinned at him, which made him smile too, “I’d really fucking like that. Are you sure that’s realistic, like we could just pack our shit in the car and leave?” Ethan nodded at her and she squealed, “Holy shit, we’re actually gonna do this huh? Oh my fuck, babe, we’re finally getting out of here. Do you think you can get off early?” Early for Ethan was anytime before 10pm, which was 8 in this case.  
“Yeah. You should probably call into work and say you’re leaving and I’ll quit. Ask Banana if she’s okay with it too because-“   
He was cut off by Hannah screaming from behind the door, “Yes! Cali-fucking-fornia!”  
“Hannah! Don’t swear! At least not until I leave, please.” She scolded but Hannah could hear the smile coming through her voice. “Anyways, get your ass over here, we have a nation to travel across, baby!”  
She sent her boss an email thanking her for all the opportunities she’s given her and all that shit. She also sent Mr. Houston an email as a thanks for helping her through the years, even after he resigned he stayed in touch. Probably from the guilt after he found out his favorite student dropped out because of him, but it was still sweet. He responded almost immediately, telling her to send him her address when they settle and also to send him pictures. He signed the message with a picture of him, Tim, and Becky captioned, ‘We’re all wishing you luck!! The Houstons.’ They had gotten married a few months ago and he invited Lex and Hannah to the wedding, he never liked Ethan, which was justified. Mr. Houston had even given him the overly protective guardian talk (“If you hurt her I’ll expel you”, and other threats that he probably would get fired for saying) which was nice. He was the closest thing she had to an actual father figure and he recognized that. He did his best to check in on her every few weeks and make sure that she “was doing as well as she deserved” as he put it.  
Lex and Hannah probably spent about 10 minutes screaming the lyrics to Disney movies while she helped her pack. Hannah didn’t have much to pack, she mostly wore Ethan’s flannel and Lex’s clothes because she liked the material. So, most of their packing process was just Lex fooling around in Ethan’s room while Hannah spun around in a swivel chair. It continued like that until Hannah heard the door shut so she ran down the stairs and tackled Ethan just like she did every night. When he recovered he asked where Lex was and she pointed at the stairs and then ran back into her own “room” which was really just a pillow fort she had made in the living room because she liked the texture of the cheap couch.  
When he walked into the room Lex’s face lit up from her spot on his bed and she hopped up to peck his cheek, “How was work?”  
He laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist, “It was goddamn heavenly. You ready to get the fuck outta here, babe?”  
“Oh, I was born fucking ready. I really can’t believe this is actually happening. This is literally what i spent all of highschool thinking about, I never knew it could happen so quickly.” Lex sighed dreamily and leaned into his chest. Ethan leaned back into her and ruffled her hair up, Lex looked up at him with a snarl, “You know, that was a really cute moment but you ruined it by being a dick”  
She moved away from him to fix her hair, “My dearest apologies.” She snorted at the dumb accent he did, “Do you wanna leave tonight or tomorrow? Maybe we should think this through a little more, I mean- I don’t even know how long it takes to get there,”  
“It’s like 34 hours by car,” Lex said of this rapid fire, she remembered it from when she contemplated leaving before.   
“That’s like a day and a half almost. So we’re gonna have to stop. Do you wanna leave early tomorrow morning, drive for the day, stop at a pitstop at night? Just kind of play it by ear,” Ethan was sitting at the end of the bed behind Lex as she combed through her hair.   
“Yeah, like we leave at 7:30 or something and then it’s like 15 hours driving with stops for gas and shit. Do you think you can do that?” She had tried to get her license but the classes were overwhelming and it cost like thirty dollars just to get the permit.  
He sucked in a breath. Ethan hated taking the extra 10 minutes to get to Clivesdale every morning, he wasn’t sure if he could do 15 hours in his shitty car, “Jesus, I’m not sure, babe. Maybe if we stop every few hours or something. That way we can all get a little fresh air before Hannah gets carsick again. Oh yeah I forgot to tell you, I stole some granola bars from the break room for the trip.”  
Lex turned around and set the comb down, “Shit. Food, what the fuck are we gonna do about food?”  
“We can make sandwiches. I've seen Hannah eat peanut butter and jelly everyday for a month and a half. I think she can deal with another few days of them. We can get those cheap lunch meat sandwiches at gas stations. We’re good on food,” Ethan tried to think of anything else that she might worry about, “I’ve got those huge water bottles from my moms weird spirit cycle phase so that’ll probably set us for a day or two. I’ve got cash from deals I had, and my bank account looks decent for the first time in a while. I think we’ve got everything covered.”   
She sighed in relief and smiled at him, “It’s actually happening. Fuck. This is weird,” He smiled back and pulled her arm towards him so she’d come closer, to which she giggled as she fell on top of him, “You're tired tonight, huh?” He nodded and held her close to him. “Don’t you need to get shit ready for tomorrow?”   
Ethan moved his head out of her shoulder, “I’ve had it packed for like a week, that’s why my rooms been so clean,”   
Lex tried to worm her way out of his arms, but it was hopeless, “Well, before you pass out on top of me, I’m gonna go check up on Hannah. You smell like booze, take a shower while I’m gone, alright?” He groaned but stood up with her as she left the room.   
Hannah was fast asleep when Lex went downstairs, so she wrapped her in a blanket and kissed her forehead. She stayed downstairs until she heard the shower stop so she could actually get ready to sleep. It was pretty early for them to shut down, but they all had a long day ahead of them.

When they woke up the next day, no one had gotten changed, their bags were already packed and in the car. They were all still wearing their pajamas and Hannah was asleep as soon as they started driving but Lex was wide awake. She was essentially jumping out of her seat with excitement, Ethan’s never seen her this energetic at such an early hour, even when he drove her to work she’d fall asleep.   
“Oh can we stop at my mom’s trailer real quick, I just wanna pick some stuff up,”  
Ethan raised an eyebrow at her. She would never willingly go to the trailer, she called that a ‘death wish’. “You sure? Do you want me to come in with you?”  
Lex responded quickly, “No, I’m good. I just need to grab some shit,” she smiled and patted his hand on the console as he pulled up to the park. He saw her mom’s car in the lot and he looked at her skeptically. She rolled her eyes and kissed his cheek, “I’ll be right back. I’ll text you if I need anything, okay?” He nodded at her as she stepped out of the car.  
Lex’s trip was relatively short, but it ended with a bang. Literally. Ethan could hear screaming from the inside and was going to call lex until she ran out smiling and hopped into the car. “Drive, dumbass.”   
He obeyed and looked over at her. Two boxes were piled on her lap and her pockets were stuffed, “What the fuck did you do?” She grinned at him and pulled out an envelope of money from her pocket, fanning herself with it, “Holy shit, babe. What-“ Ethan had been staring at Lex for so long that he didn’t realize the light had turned until someone honked, he flipped them off and started driving again.  
“Oh nothing, just a little drug money that my mom so graciously gave me.” She could see his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she chuckled, “I’m kidding I literally had to dodge fucking punches for this shit.”  
Ethan Looked concerned, “What if she calls the cops on us?”  
Lex smiled, “She wouldn’t, she literally had a fucking line of coke on the table. Also, it’s my money! This is like my entire salary from Beanies,”  
He smiled in reminisce, “I remember when you worked there. What was that, sophomore year? I took Oliver there a few times during the fall,”  
“Yeah. They paid me under the table for a few months, it was cool. I remember you guys coming in because I almost slipped you my number a few times,” Lex smiled at herself as he laughed, “Anyways, did you text your mom or anything?”  
He nodded, “Yep. Told her I was moving out and told her I loved her. She hasn’t read it yet, or any text that I’ve sent her for a matter of fact, but I don’t really care.”  
She nodded in understanding while she ran her thumb over his fingers. She didn’t understand why he cared about her so much, whenever she asked her just shrug and say ‘She’s my mom’, which didn’t mean shit. She’d treated him like shit over the years and he still thought she was going to be there for him. Lex had a period where she thought that too, then she’d wake up.  
She tried to steer clear of family stuff because that didn’t work out for either of them. “I talked to Mr. Houston, he wished us luck. Their little family is so cute it makes me wanna hurl,”  
Ethan snorted, “Wow, babe. How sweet, did you send that part to him too?” She rolled her eyes and flipped him off, “Do you know why he hates me yet? I swear he’d try and kill me if he saw me hug you in the hallways,”  
Lex scoffed at that, “You’d try to more than just hug me, but sure. Our fucking shop teacher had it out for a teenage boys head,”  
“He did! I told you about that detention, the one where he threatened to kill me if I hurt you, that’s fucking illegal.  
“That guy can’t get down on me for PDA, everyone knows that they were fucking in the nurses office.”   
She slapped him on the shoulder, “Don’t say that shit with Hannah in the backseat, dumbass. Also he was married when he was there,” Ethan raised his eyebrows as if to say “And?” So, she hit him again.  
The two days that were filled with constant driving were filled with dumb conversations and a lot of uncomfortable sleeping positions, but they made it. Ethan pulled over on the highway so that they could take a picture next to the ‘Welcome to California!’ sign. After they took the picture they all screamed in excitement for a minute before they got back into the car. They were still about an hour and a half from the motel they would stay at, but it was almost 3am, so the sisters drifted off to sleep. Until Lex woke up because Ethan tapped on her shoulder. She was about to complain that he woke her up, until she saw the sky. It was like a movie. The sunrise was layered and from the road you could see the Hollywood sign. Lex let a tear slip out of her eye,   
“We made it.”

**Author's Note:**

> FINALLY I PUT IT OUT!   
> I’m sorry it took so long, school’s been kicking my ass, but I’ve been working on other ideas and I hope y’all liked this addition!  
> Let me know what y’all think, and what y’all wanna see!  
> Love you! Have a nice day!


End file.
